All Posts by Naomi Elle Schwartz

Webster’s Bookstore & Cafe has been around for years and years. Longer than I’ve been a coffee-lover, but definitely during the years when I was a book-lover. I treasure hunted through their shelves several times and obtained some interesting vintage children’s novels (my favorite kind!) to add to my overflowing home collection. I also obtained a beautiful hard cover version of The Complete Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Webster’s disappeared from the State College area for a little while when they had to move from their downtown location, then into and out of another location (where the Callao Cafe is now located!). But they have finally found a perfect space to combine book-browsing and cafe-eating for State College patrons.

Our next stop on The Great Coffee Adventure took us all the way to Kutztown. Kutztown is a fascinating mix of old-school architecture and new-world culture. While the town is quite interesting, our focus was Global Libations.

There were several bikes parked just outside the front door. Evidently, this is a frequent stop of biking townspeople. It makes sense to me. Bike a few miles, burn some calories, stop to fill up that food/drink tank of your stomach, then bike away again. Everyone’s happy!

In between the green mountains of Pennsylvania, there lies a little town called Howard. This town is so little that there’s only one stoplight. Life is quiet here. Walking down the street, you can almost hear the soft whooshing sounds of lake waters lapping the shores. We like Howard. And its small-town, slow-paced life. We like the itty-bitty post office, the blooming bushes in the park across the street from the cafe. And now Howard boasts a new cafe called The Cafe on Walnut Street.

Have you ever walked into a place and smiled? It’s like finding your “happy place.” Happiness may not be found in coffee (or chocolate), but they definitely help. And when you meander into a little cafe like Helena’s Chocolate Cafe & Creperie in Carlisle, and look around, I guarantee that you will smile.

It’s a little touch of European cafe-style happiness in the middle of a historic town. It’s the feeling of being involved in the community, and yet, somehow elevating the community … adding something special to the recipe of community. A sprinkle of joy + a dash of delectable delights + sunny sentiment = Welcome to Helena’s!

Welcome to the Pump Station Cafe. One of the only free-standing cafes that we have visited, it stands out among the rest. It’s just past the only stoplight in the middle of Boalsburg, near the Pennsylvania Military Museum and the bronze statues of three ladies who founded Memorial Day in this historic small town.

While the Pump Station does not memorialize fallen soldiers like the historic attractions surrounding it, the cafe seems to memorialize the long-lost time of gathering by the gas station for a chat with neighbors and friends. This place has a happy sort of nostalgia. A little gas station/garage that used to shelter cars in need of repair now takes a turn as a place for human refueling, refreshing, and restoration. Massive windows encourage the sunlight to flood in, which we all know gives us necessary vitamin D and improves our moods!

Finding Allegheny Creamery & Crepes was unintentional. A fully-delicious-delectable accident that I am very grateful for! We had intended to check out another cafe in Hollidaysburg, but it wasn’t open when we thought it would be. Just imagine us, trudging slowly back to our vehicle, saddened, dejected, and desperately in need of the espresso/coffee/sugar-blended beverages that we regularly consume. Then I looked up, “Oh! Crepes! I love crepes!” I said to my husband “Maybe they would know of another coffee shop?”

One of my favorite things about independent coffee shops is how they’re grafted into the fabric of a community. They’re more than shops or restaurants; they are gathering places. They’re not just another “Starbucks” (no offense to my dear Sbux, I’m going back for a mocha one-a-these-days!); they’re a snapshot of small-town life. And even if a local coffee shop has only been around, say “just over a year,” when things are done right, it feels like the place has been around forever.

Callao Cafe is the new kid on the block in State College. With a soft opening in November 2011, they’ve been open for about six months and going strong!

Tucked back in a little shopping center off West Aaron Drive on the North Atherton side of town (if you’re from State College, these directions are completely normal), Callao Cafe appears like a breath of fresh air. The place is not-too-big. Just enough room to grab a little table with a friend—for actual lunch or coffee and conversation. No solitary working here (no free wi-fi). I actually admire that move. Way to be counter-cultural, Callao Cafe!

There is a “welcoming feeling” that permeates Standing Stone Coffee Company in Huntingdon. Like a bear hug you get from your big brother after being away all summer. It’s nice and warm and all-kinds-of-happy. It says “I’m glad you’re here! Sit down and stay awhile.”

When you talk to any State College resident about locally-owned coffee shops, Saint’s Cafe is without-a-doubt the first place they mention. And it’s no wonder; it’s been voted State College’s Best Gourmet Coffee for years!

My husband and I drive by Saint’s Cafe on our daily commute, and we’re always amazed at its popularity. People practically tumbling out the door all of the time. And so it would be Saint’s Cafe and their obvious success that determined our visiting time at 7:00 am on a Friday morning. We arrived before the place opened and were the first ones through the doors.

Cool Beans Coffee and Tea is located right in the middle of Bellefonte—my hometown—and is surrounded by the Victorian architecture the town is famous for. An imposing courthouse sits at its center, and Tallyrand Park—home of my favorite bridge and a million ducks—is on the other end.

Where Bellefonte Gathers.

That’s the motto of this little shop. And it’s so true. There’s such a melting pot of customers throughout this place. Businessmen, retirees, students, people on first-dates (I have both been this person and been a laptop worker overhearing the conversation of an obvious blind date!), teenagers, women just finished with exercising at the local YMCA, moms with little children, etc. People of all kinds and varied interests/ages gather here. For coffee. For conversation. For quiet. To get away from distractions at home. Or maybe to find some distractions.

For our first stop on The Great Coffee Adventure, we elected to begin in Lock Haven, Pa. Home of Lock Haven University, this is a sleepy little college town with an incredibly unique and impressive coffee shop called Avenue 209 Coffee House.

Avenue 209 Coffee House is just straight-up COOL. They are industrial and artistic and thoroughly local. Like someone’s little brother who went to college as a scrawny 18-year-old kid and came back as a hipster musician with style.. and everybody raises their eyebrows. I don’t know what I was expecting, but Avenue 209 definitely went straight up and over those expectations and delivered the ambiance that I’ve been longing for in a local coffee shop.

Hello Local Food Journey fans! I’m Naomi Elle. I’m a local photographer enamored with the personalities and products of small-town Pennsylvania. While I have been a Pennsylvania resident for the majority of my life, my husband is a recent “transplant” from the Northern Virginia/Washington DC area.